Since the September 11 attacks, the international community has realized that terrorist groups exist with the intent, and the capacity to some extent, to inflict deaths on a massive scale, which may be by using Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), namely biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. In addition, the use of a “dirty bomb”-a radiological weapon-would be a much easier option for the non-state actors.

One sure way to eliminate the possibility, and thus the probability of terrorism with nuclear and radiological weapons would be to eliminate the availability of all nuclear and radiological material to keep them away from the reach of the terrorist groups. The long-term objective must be to achieve “Global Zero” in nuclear weapons and for this to happen the nuclear non-proliferation efforts should not only focus on the supply side, through maintaining and strengthening measures designed to make it as difficult as possible for states to buy or build such weapons, but also should focus on the demand side efforts to convince states that nuclear weapons no longer address their security needs.